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Doublereed Archive - Posting 000079.txt from 2003/08

From: Jim Katz <jimkatz@-----.ca>
Subj: [DR-L] Re: Toyota and Jaguar
Date: Sun, 10 Aug 2003 14:38:36 -0400

Thanks, Jennifer for your wise and artful commentary on the issue of
expensive instruments and quality/taste/talent issues. You keep me
subscribed to these lists.

I once heard a talented Australian playing a didgeridoo with great art and
style. He was so good he could have gotten music out of some hollow tree
branch he found in the bush....

Jim
>
> On Sunday, August 10, 2003, at 06:49 am, Gregory Newton wrote:
>
>>> Hi,
>>
>>> I don't know much about bassoons, but from all the detective work
>>> that is
>>> going on with this item, am I to assume Heckel =3D great bassoon and
>>> Schreiber =3D bad bassoon?
>>
>>> Fred
>>
>> more to the point ... Heckel VERY expensive bassoon ... Schreiber
>> inexpensive (as far as bassoons go)bassoon.
>>
>> Greg
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> ----------------------------
> Jennifer Paull,
> Amoris International
> http://www.amoris.com
> Rare music at the press of an oboe and a computer key

>
> Dear List,
>
>
Over the years I have been a member on and off, this question about
instruments surfaces regularly. Of course, everyone will say that you can
only drive a Jaguar. Others prefer a Toyota. There then follows the Safari
to the best deal.

In some countries in the east of Europe, and on many other continents,
> there is no question of being able to afford a Mercedes or a Rolls.
>
>
> Whether we are talking about bassoons or oboes, the same rule applies.
> Perhaps
>
> it would be wonderful if we were all to consider that a Stradivarius
> was the same
>
> make. That is not the case (fortunately for the player and for the
> stabilising of sales
>
> prices in a resulting monopoly). This is an international list and
> there are people
>
> who do not have the same optics/tastes/possibilities within it. There
> is, however,
>
> no denying that the same names appear at the top of the instrumental
> tree, but as
>
> with pianos, some will say that a B=F6sendorfer is by far the best for
> chamber music
>
> as a Steinway, too overpowering, and reverse the order of preference
> for the concert
>
> stage. Also - Heckel do not make French bassoons and I'm glad to say,
> there are
>
> many of us who love them. Therefore, optics are varied, as is taste.
>
>
> If I might add to both the below remarks - an instrument is only as
> good as its
>
> performer. The best instrument in the world lies mute without the
> musicianship of
>
> (s)he who plays it. The best instrument in the world can sound
> appalling when used
>
> as a means of expression by someone with nothing to say and no
> technique with
>
> which to try to say it.
>
>
> Instruments are very important - but musicianship and learning are so
> much
>
> more so. I have heard musicians playing from the heart on pieces of
> pinned
>
> wood with green keywork from which silver plating had disappeared
> before WWll.
>
>
> The instrument is a luxury for many, many people. It's the talent plus
> the musicianship
>
> combination that rises above the greatest craftsmanship. Put a great
> player on a
>
> poor instrument and (s)he'll still make music. Put a poor player on a
> great instrument
>
> and (s)he'll still make a hash of it. Let's put all the best
> ingredients together and maybe
>
> the result is better still, but the choice of the means to the end is
> not a fixed rule cast
>
> in concrete. There are many instruments that are less than perfect
> from the greatest of
>
> stables these days. There are also wonderful instruments made by the
> most surprising,
>
> relatively small companies.
>
>
> Instruments do matter, but only to an undefinable extent. Did Gwydion
> Brook care about
>
> such points ( RPO then Philharmonia, London)? For those who don't know
> who he is, just
>
> believe me when I say that in his performing days, he could have taken
> a pen knife to a piece
>
> of plank and still made it sound like perfection. The Rite of Spring
> solo was "a" bassoon
>
> played by Gwydion Brook. The make of that piece of hardware was his
> means to the end - the
>
> end being the beauty of the music. That hardware was not Heckel.
>
>
> "An optimist is a person who sees a green light everywhere, while a
>
> pessimist sees only the red stoplight... The truly wise person is
>
> color-blind. -Albert Schweitzer, philosopher, physician, musician,
> Nobel
>
> laureate (1875-1965)"
>
>
>
> Jennifer Paull
>
>
> -----------------------------